Hydrolysis reaction on the characterization of wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide

Wormhole-like mesostructures have promising applications in heterogeneous catalysis because channel branching within the wormhole-like mesostructures can facilitate access to active sites on the framework walls. We adopt the poly(alkylene oxide) triblock copolymer of L62 (BASF Pluronic EO8PO30EO8) as a template to form wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide. In the hydrolysis experiment, 10 or 20% anhydrous ethanol was replaced with distilled deionized water (H2O). The crystallinity of wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide decreases when the anhydrous ethanol solvent is replaced with H2O. Such a decrease in the relative strength of O–W–O binding attributes to the hydrolysis of the wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide from Raman spectra. Specific surface area and average pore size of wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide decrease with the amount of H2O replacement. The phenomenon can also be confirmed by nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms. These results show that the hydrolysis reactions have great significance and application for the development of wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten oxide in the future.